Vertigo - Film Opening Analysis

• Sound bridge - suspenseful, dramatic deep string music is heard before we see the image. This already sets up the theme of a chase.
• A bar then comes into shot and a pair of hands grip it - suggesting a struggle, a getaway. Already building tension.
• Zooms out to man climbing rungs of ladder onto a roof, running - confirms chase scene. The roof connotes danger due to the heights involved.
• A policeman follows, telling the audience there has been a run-in with the law.
• A detective, our protagonist, follows. The clothes these men are wearing instantly informs the audience of who they are; we know what the relationships are between them without having to be told.
• Long shot of the rooftops and the night sky, showing the three figures running after another. The night setting adds to the presence of danger and threat; shadows, darkness etc.
• Gun shots are heard, building more tension and evoking fear.
• Wide shot of a slanted roof on the LHS with the criminal and the policeman jumping onto it, into the frame from the RHS - they struggle a little to climb up it. This grips the audience to the edge of their seats, evoking excitement and anxiety as the threat of death is tangible.
• The protagonist, Ferguson, struggles even more so. The camera cuts to a close shot of him falling down the roof and gripping onto the drainpipe. This heightens the emotions already felt by the audience, evoking stronger feelings of terror.
• Ferguson looks down and sees the street below him - POV shot - the famous ‘vertigo effect’ shot is used, by using a dolly zoom. Heightens tension and threat.
• Close up of his facial expression shows horror, fear and perhaps even defeat.
• The policeman comes back for him, tries to help him up - we begin to have hope that it will turn out ok. We are wrong; the policeman falls to his death - this evokes surprise and shock, and confirms that it is possible for the same to happen to Ferguson.
• Eyeline match from Ferguson to the ground shows him splayed on the pavement, again re-emphasising the height from which he may fall, and how he will end up if he does.
• Another close up of his face; terror, alarm, fright.
• Hitchcock uses the slow build of suspense and tension to evoke fear instead of fast paced action, as he did not have a lot of technology available to him. We can already see this in this opening, as half of the scene revolves around Ferguson gripping the drainpipe and the drop to the ground.